Can 186-million consumers be wrong?

G’day mates,

I’ve been doing more research of Ethanol powered cars and although I can find very little on Ethanol powered cars in Australia…apart from one article on an old 1925 Austin that was entered in the 2005 Panasonic World Solar Challenge and completed the rally with ease! The 1925 Austin was powered with straight Ethanol!

This event, which has been running every two years since 1987, now attracts teams from all over Australia and around the world and it runs in late September, from Darwin to Adelaide, over about six days. Further information can be found at:
http://carpoint.ninemsn.com.au/porta...opDefault.aspx

I did some more checking and found the following URL on Ethanol fuelled cars in Brazil:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/17/Wo...t_the_an.shtml

It states on the site:
Brazil is now almost impervious to the instability of gasoline supplies that has bedevilled the United States in the aftermath of two massive hurricanes and the war in Iraq.
Gas pump prices seem stuck around $3 a gallon, but most U.S. drivers have little choice beyond regular, unleaded or premium.
"There is a lot we can learn from Brazil. They are doing great things," said Gal Luft, an alternative energy advocate at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a think-tank in Washington, D.C.

Now then mates, I’m no maths wiz kid but if the Brazilians are paying $4 us per gallon for petrol, that not much more than we Aussies pay at present! In fact on some days in a lot of places in Australia, motorist could be paying more!

Today, the 29/1/06: 4.00 United States Dollars = 5.32200 Australia Dollars and 1 gallon US, liquid = 3.7854118 litres Australian, so for the equivalent of 1 us gallon i.e. 3.785411 Aus litres x $1.23.9 the price I paid today at the pump = $4.6560555 Aus for one gallon!
No wonder the Brazilians are over the moon with Ethanol straight and blends!
When fuel for their cars is selling for barely $2 a gallon! On top of that, car buyers of new cars also receive an annual tax credit on alcohol cars, which have cleaner tailpipe emissions.

Now can you see why I and a few others are interested in replacing petrol with Ethanol in our cars, generators and many other petrol driven engines?
It makes sense to me and it could save me a packet at the pumps, furthermore, I bet I’m not alone in my thinking! So why can’t Aussie organisations tell us how to alter our cars…if we have to…to use straight Ethanol or E85 or whatever? What do you think? Are we still "The Smart Country" or have we become "It's Too Hard To Do Country"

Cheers mates,

Bill…Kando…With a little help from my friends :